Be Kind at Halloween

Does that seem a strange title? Kindness doesn't really seem to be a key theme of Halloween.

All the trappings of Halloween have filled the shops for weeks, it is a real commercial opportunity these days.
As you prepare, participate, or tidy up afterwards, please think for a moment and be as kind as you can to our creation by recycling and re-using as much as possible.

An estimated 12.8 million pumpkins are bought for decoration each year and sadly most of them end up being thrown away.

You can:
Carve it.
Cook it- they can be made into sweet or savoury dishes. Here are some recipes from hubbub
and Love food hate waste.
Recycle it – every part of your pumpkin can be recycled including the stalk and the seeds. Chop it up and put it into your brown food caddy.. If there is no room leave it whole and put it on the lid of your food caddy (between November 4th and November 8th) and it will be collected.

Sweets are a key part of trick or treat but lots of them are wrapped. If you can get treats either not wrapped at all, or wrapped in foil which is easier to recycle.
For your foil wrappers scrunch them up into a ball and recycle them in your green recycling box.
For your plastic wrappers check but they may well be taken in the plastic recycling at supermarkets around the county.

With 4 in 10 Halloween costumes only being worn once before they're thrown away, and a lot of them being made from plastic, the cost of looking spooky is scarily on the rise!
Make your costume from recyclable items – From cardboard box robots to DIY witch hats from old bits of fabric and ghosts from old bedsheets, it's time to get creative!
Reuse costumes from previous years – There's no shame in being the one who always comes as a zombie if you've already got the costume, and it saves buying new. If the kids have outgrown their costumes from last year, why not hunt around in a charity shop or online marketplaces to find something preloved? These are great places to take your outgrown costumes, too!
Rent a costume – If you're after something more elaborate, or you don't want to wear the same thing as last year, another option is to rent your costume. There are lots of websites that allow you to rent fancy dress outfits, and these not only look more impressive, but they're much kinder to the environment!
Library costume swap – All libraries across the county will be running a Halloween costume swap. You can swap an old costume for a new one between 7 October and 1 November

Thanks to a recent Gloucester City Council email for all this advice about minimising the impact of our Halloween celebrations.